Just sitting here on my deck watching a mating pair of red tail hawks on the nest.
Really an awesome thing to see them and watch them fend off the scrub jays from getting near the eggs. Not sure when they will or if they have hatched but a fully mature red tail is a very large bird.

By chance are the chicks born or they still on eggs? I have some good binoculars and have seen mom and dad just hanging on the nest. These birds live here year round and nest here every year. I would live to put a web cam on them next year.

That nest is three feet deep and at least three feet across I bet. I'll bust out the camera and zoom lens and try for a better shot if them. Scrub jays suck. Their killing all the robin and dove eggs and nests all around the house. I'm sure they are killing the quail eggs as well.
:(

Sorry to hog the thread (or not), but it's been a couple of good days here. I've missed the photos I've wanted of the blue patch of flying and sitting Cinnamon Teals and the Blue Winged Teals. More irritating to not have the camera for the Dowitcher and, I think a down-right-rare Red Necked Phalarope, but nonetheless:

Nesting Golden Eagle near Carson
There are two live chicks. One got up and moved around, the other only flapped a wing a couple time. Pics taken from 0.2miles with a low-end 36x spotting scope and a smart-phone camera. Video to follow later.

just got back from my trip to Nicaragua. We were able to find an Occelated Poorwill for Macklin Smith's North America list, but we didn't get it until last night when we were back in Costa Rica. We spent alot of time on our butts in boats. Caught the very end of the dry season so rivers were low and we were barely able to get into some places. Had to skip some others that were too dry.

The trip started out poorly when the outboard motor in our boat threw a rod just shy of the Nicaraguan border along the Rio Frio north of Los Chiles. The boatman had to paddle us a few kilometers downriver to the border checkpoint so we could catch the publc boat up to San Carlos at the outlet of Lake Nicaragua and the start of the Rio San Juan. We didn't make it to the Bartola Lodge until after dark. Fun navigating on a big river in a small panga at night. Luckily there was a full moon.

Boat dock at Los Chiles, Costa Rica. The Rio Frio flows north into Nicaragua and comes out at the outlet of Lake Nicaragua (SE corner) where the Rio San Juan starts.

Credit: little Z

Cocibolca, the local name for Lake Nicaragua. Pick-up soccer game on a sandbar. Distant mountains are the volcanos of the Cordillera de Guanacaste in Costa Rica.

Credit: little Z

Amazon Kingfisher, they were by far the most common species. Also had many Ringed and Green. photo by Kevin Easley.

Credit: little Z

Northern Jacana, plenty of these too. photo by Kevin Easley.

Credit: little Z

on the Rio San Juan in our little dugout (panga) pulling into El Castillo

Credit: little Z

Green Ibis, they were happy with the low water and exposed mud banks and sand bars. This was one of the few that was not up his nostrils in the muck. photo by Kevin Easley.

Credit: little Z

We went for a long forest hike the first day. Saw a ton of good stuff. Kevin got a few photos. The objective was a Speckled Mourner that was on territory - a really hard bird in Central America. We nailed it.

mouth of the placid Rio Bartola flowing into the Rio San Juan. Boat is docked at the Bartola Lodge, dock on other side is the Nicaraguan Army post at the start of the Indio Maiz Resreve, far bank is Costa Rica.

Credit: little Z

Agami Heron we flushed from a forest stream, perhaps the world's most beautiful heron. photo by Kevin Easley.

We went into the Indio Maiz reserve to explore what we could by boat but most of the access points were blocked because of the low water.

End of the line, Rio Sarnoso. See the normal waterline on the banks. Kevin Easley (bird photographer) and Jonathan Segovia, our boatman.

Credit: little Z

We dipped three nights in a row trying to find an Occelated Poorwill, but finally found one last night just over the border when we were back in Costa Rica. Not much to look at but a super rarity for Central America.

Occelated Poorwill, beleive it or not. A big twitch for big twitchers. Photo by Kevin Easley.

Credit: little Z

Macklin Smith, the biggest of twitchers, strolling the streets of El Castillo. He is a retired profesor of literature/poetry from the University of Michigan.